STBC for wireless communication: a least square interpretation

Much attention has been paid to the space-time block code (STBC) due to its simplicity and good performance. For wireless downlink transmission, this means that the communication quality is improved without increasing both the receiver complexity and the number of receive antennas. Instead of applying maximum likelihood decoding (MLD), this paper uses the least square decoding (LSD) to interpret the decoding structure of STBC. Furthermore, the performances of STBC-based transmit diversity systems in slowly Rayleigh fading channel are evaluated by theoretical derivation and computer simulation, as well. It is shown that the theoretical curves and simulation results are matched with each other. By the least square interpretation, the STBC-based transmit diversity system is more concisely realized.